cystadenoma

[BuntW]

Hello, I’ve been diagnosed via MRI and liver radiologist with a large cystadenoma and have been referred to a liver specialist multi disciplinary team. Has anyone in here had a resection? If so would you mind sharing pre and post op experience? Or is there anyone who has one but hasn’t had the surgery?

Many thanks.

[purplecatlady1]

Hi

I am at present recovering from a liver resection, it was done 7 weeks ago. Mine was a tumour 11cm x 6cm on the front of my liver, so it was a wedge resection.

It was part keyhole and part hand assisted, so I had a small incision in my navel, an inch incision on left where I had a drain to remove blood and bile and a 7" incision where the hand went in to remove the tumour and part of liver.

After your op it is naturally pretty painful, however they will have you on strong pain meds for a few days, they need you to be able to breath deeply without pain so that you dont get a lung infection, they will also be getting you out of bed and moving around within a day or so, even if its just to sit in the chair for a little while.

As you can imagine, to start with walking around is painful, everything feels really tight inside, but the more you do it, the easier it gets.

I was in hospital for 6 days, at home for the first 3 weeks it was still pretty hard going, I made sure that I went to bed every day for 2 hours early afternoon as your body and liver needs rest to heal.

I am now 7 weeks on, I am not needing any painkillers, I have started driving again and am walking for approx an hour a day. But I am still being very careful about not lifting anything heavy.

When I was about 2 weeks post-op I got worried as I felt like my insides were tightening up even more and I started getting stabbing pains when I moved in my right hand side, the specialist nurse reassured me that it was all part if the healing process. ( At your pre-op appointment you will be given a contact telephone number for the specialist nurses, they are invaluable to be able to ring of you have any worries.)

With regard to the pre-op assessment, I had blood tests, ecg, fitness test on an exercise bike whilst they monitored my breathing and heart rate, to check that my heart and lungs were fit for surgery. Then I had a meeting with the surgeon to discuss exactly what would happen on the day.

For info, I am 56 yrs old fit & healthy with no other health problems.

Any further questions, feel free to ask.